Pink Floyd

Pink Floyd ([pɪŋk flɔɪd]) is a British rock band from London. The band began with a first album of psychedelic music before moving towards progressive rock. Formed in 1965, they are considered a pioneer and major representative of these musical styles. They are known for their atmospheric, experimental music, their philosophical and satirical lyrics, their concept albums and their original and elaborate live performances. From their beginnings to today, the band has sold more than 360 million albums worldwide. In the United States alone, Pink Floyd's album sales are counted by the RIAA at 85 million copies.

Initially fronted by guitarist, singer and principal songwriter Syd Barrett, the band achieved modest success in the mid-1960s, then became one of London's most popular underground bands on the psychedelic scene. However, Barrett's increasingly erratic behaviour — largely due to heavy LSD use — led the other members to replace him with David Gilmour, a childhood friend of Barrett's. Bassist Roger Waters gradually became the band's leader, writing all the lyrics from 1972 onwards. Pink Floyd achieved worldwide fame the following year with The Dark Side of the Moon (1973), the third best-selling album of all time, behind AC/DC's Back in Black (1980) and Michael Jackson's Thriller (1982).

The band continued its run of success throughout the 1970s with Wish You Were Here (1975), Animals (1977) and The Wall (1979), the latter also being adapted into a film. However, tensions within the band grew over time as Waters took increasing control. During the recording of The Wall, keyboardist Richard Wright was fired from the band, but still took part in the tour. Waters left the band in 1985, following the release two years earlier of The Final Cut, of which he was the sole author. In 1987, David Gilmour and Nick Mason decided to record a new album under the Pink Floyd banner and brought Richard Wright back for A Momentary Lapse of Reason (1987) and then The Division Bell (1994), while resuming live performances. The band went on hiatus in 1996.

The various members then reunited on a few occasions during the 2000s. Pink Floyd, in their best-known line-up (with Gilmour, Mason, Waters and Wright), gave their final public performance on 2 July 2005 at Live 8 in London. The event sparked numerous rumours of a reunion, denied by Gilmour and rendered moot by Wright's death in 2008. A final album, titled The Endless River, made up mainly of unused recordings from the Division Bell sessions, was released in November 2014.